It is the 20th of August 2166. And depending on one’s location on the planet, it is roughly midnight. 1:33 to be exact. Tau’s communication satellites only had to transmit and transfer minor data packages from various sites across the world. But suddenly, the entire network almost crashed. “What the fuck just happened!?” a communications expert said as he was brought back to real life from his idle thoughts. The screens were black. Every one of them. But subsystems still suggested that data was being transferred. “What the fuck is going on Williams!?” the supervising officer yelled as he walked into the main coms room. “Are we being attacked?! Is it a cyber-attack, or are they taking down our satellites?!” he asked frantically as he was already barking orders into his earpiece. Williams, a human, was rather unfazed by the large German Shepard yelling in the room as more and more people flocked into the room to try and sort this mess up. “Answer me god damn it!” the dog shouted once more before he was shut up by what appeared on the multiple screens.
Meanwhile, Tau was sleeping in his home. For him, the past few weeks were uneventful. The world in general seemed to be void of any major conflicts or controversies from either politics or celebrities. So, when the phone rang, he was rather… annoyed by it. “Sir! You won’t believe this!” a voice shouted through the phone. Tau had to pull it away, and his ear rang for a few seconds before he snarled back into the phone. “What the fuck is so important that you had to blow my eardrum in the middle of the night!?” and the man on the other side went on unfazed. “Sir you have to see this! This will change the course of humanity forever!” Williams said rather enthusiastically as he sounded like he was going to burst with excitement. “You have to see it, if I just tell you won’t believe me!” he insisted and Tau just grumbled back as he got out of bed. A few minute later, he had a coffee mug in his hand, and was walking, in the escort of his guards, to the helicopter pad. He got into the chopper, and was on his way to his communications hub somewhere deep in Russian territory, far away from any listening devices, and spying attempts. The flight took him a couple of hours to get there, and when he did, he was a bit surprised. The large data channeling facility was bristling with activity. It was actually at full capacity.
When he landed, he was greeted by the site main administrator, as well as the commanding officer. The German Shepard was the first to shake his paw, and he started to give him a brief rundown on what had happened. “That’s a lovely story general, but are you sure that this isn’t just a hacking attempt mixed with a practical joke?” Tau grumbled as he didn’t quite believe what he was told. “That’s why this nerd will explain from now on” the Shepard grumbled as they entered the main control room. “Ahh, Tau Maxim! A pleasure to finally meet you” Williams greeted him rapidly as he hardly contained his excitement. “Just show me what all the fuss is about, and try to convince me that it isn’t just some bad joke from a talented hacker working out of his garage.” Tau snarled back at him before he was pointed to the larges screen on the opposite wall. The screen lit up, with what seemed to be an oscilloscope pattern on it. “Not impressed” he grumbled as he looked at Williams. And then, a sound was heard from the speakers in the room. There was still no picture, only the trembling line of the oscilloscope as white noise was heard. Tau was just about to fire Williams, but was interrupted by a voice.
“Greetings. We are here to greet you on behalf of the galactic community.” A female sounding voice said. “Please, do not fear us. We come in peace. We are sorry that we couldn’t make the first greeting in person, so to speak, but this will have to do.” She continued as Tau was listening closely. “We will make proper contact on the 30th of August at what you call 12:00 Greenwich Mean Time, on the following coordinates: 47⁰20’53.33” North, 9⁰03’27.48” East.” And the transmission terminated. “Okay. Why is this so important? It’s just a voice recording, nothing more“ Tau grumbled at both men. The Shepard just walked away, leaving Williams to explain himself. “Well, first off all, it wouldn’t be so fascinating, if the entire recording didn’t come in a few nanoseconds. Nearly fried our receivers down here and on our satellite. That’s what caused the entire system to force shut down” Williams hurried to explain, but was cut short by Tau. “You have one more sentence to impress me before I fire your ass and send you on a refreshing holyday in Siberia.” He growled lightly as he didn’t seem impressed one bit. “It came from roughly the area where the Moon is. So it’s not terrestrial.” Williams explained in what could only be described as a fan boy talking about something he really like to someone who has no idea what he’s talking about. “I’m sorry, WHAT?!” Tau yelled as he leaned into the closest monitor he could find. “You have got to be shitting me…” he said as he saw the numbers and calculations. “No, I’m not… But sadly, that’s not it” Williams said as he sat down by his side.
A long and exhausting explanation later, Tau was brought up to speed on what happened and what was happening. “So you’re telling me, it was a directed radio signal? Pointed to a few specific satellites and ground stations?” he asked as he finally thought that he managed to wrap his mind around what he was told. “Yeah, pretty much sir. Far beyond what we can do now” Williams answered as he took a sip of coffee. “Do you know what this means Williams?” Tau asked as he looked at him with sincere concern in his eyes. “More or less. What concerns me that now multiple governments know about this. But so far, everything’s quiet” the other said back and Tau just nodded his head. “If this gets out, people will most likely panic. And no one wants that. That’s why they’re keeping quiet about this…” Tau said as he was seemingly lost in his thoughts. “Where is the location again?” he asked as he stood up to get some more coffee. “Somewhere in Switzerland, near a town called…” Williams said as he looked at the computer “Bütschwil” and leaned back into his seat and kneaded his eyes. “And the time gives us roughly nine and a half days to figure out how to handle this mess” Tau said as he poured himself a fresh cup of coffee.
“What I want to know, is why haven’t we taken down our main data banks yet?” the general asked as he came into the room with the latest satellite images of said location. “Because, if she spoke in English, they probably already know everything about us, and know the best way to kill us. So, either they’re really here in peace, or this is just a joke on their part to cause panic.” Tau said as he took a sip. A moment of silence followed, as everyone knew the impact that this will have on Earth. “So, what now?” Williams asked, but it was more to break the silence. “Well, we’ll have to get troops there as soon as possible. God know what the others will do, especially America. Remember what happened when a kid managed to guess a username and password to the secret Pentagon servers? That was almost the start of World war three” the Shepard said with almost a chuckle in his voice. “Yes, and that’s what worries me” Tau said as he turned towards the screen on the wall, showing a satellite image of the supposed landing site.
